I think if you ask Bethesda, they would love to see some competition too. It will push them to make their next game even better. Right now, Bethesda TES competes with Bethesda/Obsidian Fallout. Two Worlds has joined the fray but hasn't yet had the success, though they constantly picture themselves as Bethesda beaters If CDPR actually makes an open-world game then that should only help Bethesda's bottom line. I don't really get open-world with static protagonist though. That's going to be a major hurdle. As in the other thread, I don't see females relating to geriatric Geralt as a player character. There goes 50 million dollars or so, already.

Don't worry Crpnut this will be Geralt's last story then you will have the cyberpunk game to chose male of female with all the customizing you want.

I don't care about that in my rpg's but to each there own. Also here is there press announcement.

CD Projekt RED has officially announced the title of their next upcoming game: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (VIDEO). Further, they've announced that this, the ultimate game in the series, will also be the final Witcher game from the studio. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt combines CD Projekt RED’s trademark decision-based storytelling flair with a living open world larger than any other in modern RPG history.

“The captivating and nonlinear story of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt takes place in a rich, truly open world environment. A world which is thrilling to explore, full of daring adventures, momentous quests, memorable characters, and unique monsters. Players will freely travel through woods, lakes, mountains, cities, and villages. Each region is inhabited by distinct populations with their own customs, legends and problems. The world of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is 30 times bigger than The Witcher 2," said Adam Badowski, head of the studio.

“Imagine playing a dark fantasy game with the same great nonlinear story as in the previous Witcher titles, but now told in a world you can explore freely with no artificial boundaries. The war-ravaged world is so huge that to reach further places you will need to ride a horse or sail a boat to get there. A world where your choices have truly epic consequences. From the development side, this goal is extremely demanding. Our team had to make significant design changes and our tech had to be rebuilt. But we believe that this will lead to a completely new level of nonlinearity and a whole new, richer gaming experience. As a gamer, I would love to play this kind of RPG and I think this is what many players are waiting for. This is our dream come true at CD Projekt RED, and we hope it will be the same for you!” adds Badowski.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the final episode of the award-winning RPG series and the last part of the legend of Geralt of Rivia. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the most robust and breathtaking game ever created by CD Projekt RED. Open world free-roaming exploration is an adventure in itself as the player will gallop through war-ravaged lands, sail misty waters and track down dangerous beasts for money. An improved combat system will allow players to feel like a real monster-hunter, a witcher who uses his superior senses and fighting skills to survive in a dark fantasy world—while he embarks on a quest to save his loved ones. The new core mechanics of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt immerse the player in the experience completely, with no Quick Time Events, only intuitive RPG gameplay.

Badowski continued, "People may ask if this is really going to be the last Witcher game. Yes, it is. Why? Because we believe that we should end the series on a high note. Technology has progressed to where we can finally tell the story the way we want, with the visuals we want, in the world we imagined. This will be the ultimate fantasy RPG experience, and while we're hardly out of stories to tell, we believe it's time for us to look to new worlds and new horizons to keep pushing the boundaries of what we can create."

For all of those who have never experienced the adventures of Geralt before, this will be their last chance. The game will be accessible all players—those who are fans of the series and those who just love RPGs—thanks to availability on all major high-end platforms and an introduction designed to smoothly introduce all those who visit the world of the Witcher for the first time."

The game will be released in 2014 simultaneously on all high-end platforms. Making use of the same remarkable art direction from The Witcher 2 combined with the support of in-house technology—the recently-announced RPG-oriented REDengine 3—The Witcher 3 will take full advantage of the technical capabilities of modern hardware and will set a new standard for RPG visuals.

You heard them this is what everyone wants. We can look forward to Geralt's death and a massive fan backlash all over again.

Originally Posted by Maylander
I never mentioned Gothic 3 regarding TW3 previously. Being open world doesn't mean much - Gothic 1 & 2 are also open world games. However, being bigger than Skyrim.. that's something else entirely. Reminds me of Bilbo: "I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread."

I wasn't talking about you specificially. You're not the only one who brought up Gothic 3.

You still missed my point though. Gothic 3's issues weren't because of its size, they were because Piranha Bytes was rushed at the end. It didn't get the development time that it should have. I don't think TW3 is going to have that problem.

Of course that doesn't guarantee that TW3 is going to be a good game. If it's not though, I doubt the reason will be because it's too big.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Gothic 3's issues weren't because of its size, they were because Piranha Bytes was rushed at the end.

I would disagree. Sure the bugs were because PB were rushed; however, even if G3 had been bug-free, it would still have suffered from paper thin characters who were unrecognisable from their G1/2 incarnations due to their lack of dialogue. Quests transformed from being lengthy, interesting affairs into "kill the 5 vicious scavengers outside Reddock". I think these were inevitable consequences of having such a large world and only a limited team to populate it.

Originally Posted by coaster
I would disagree. Sure the bugs were because PB were rushed; however, even if G3 had been bug-free, it would still have suffered from paper thin characters who were unrecognisable from their G1/2 incarnations due to their lack of dialogue. Quests transformed from being lengthy, interesting affairs into "kill the 5 vicious scavengers outside Reddock". I think these were inevitable consequences of having such a large world and only a limited team to populate it.

A limited team (if that was even an issue) could have populated it just fine if they had more time. Empty caves and large areas with little of interest were obvious symptoms of insufficient development time. Your complaints of characters lacking depth and simplified quests are the same thing. Although I would say that certain NPCs being significantly different from G1/2 actually had more to do with the voice acting than the amount of dialogue.

Originally Posted by JDR13
A limited team (if that was even an issue) could have populated it just fine if they had more time.

Perhaps…but how much time is enough? I'm not altogether confident CDPR have enough time and/or manpower to adequately fill a world bigger than Skyrim by next year with decent content. However I wouldn't say it is impossible - Fallout:NV managed to combine open world gameplay, decent characters and plot, and choices and consequences, although it was a bit buggy and had some balance issues.

That's a good question. We don't know how far along they are in development at this point. I also wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't make it out the door in 2014.

It will be interesting to see if TW3 is actually bigger than Skyrim though. As others have already mentioned, it's probably just marketing PR more than anything. The world map might be larger than Skyrim, but that doesn't mean there will be more explorable area.

Originally Posted by JDR13
The world map might be larger than Skyrim, but that doesn't mean there will be more explorable area.

Yeah.
Also, personally I suspect (and hope) that the large landmass has a lot to do with providing a sense of scope and that they´re not going for the same kind of density and distribution of content as Skyrim.
If they want to retain narrative punch, filling the world with 100+ dungeons would be counter-productive. Creating a huge number of side quests that are irrelevant to the main one would likely be also similarly counter-productive.
Fallout: New Vegas managed to provide a rather compact, mostly well written and highly reactive storyline and it did so because, among other things, there were just a few larger dungeons and a lot of side quests informed the main storyline in one way or the other. However, the F:NV´s world felt rather cramped, even though there´s less amount of content than in Skyrim.

What I´m getting at is that there´s a possibility CDPR is going for a volume of content comparable to F:NV, while utilizing larger landmass to avoid the cramped feeling.
And if the horses and boats are fast enough, no negative gameplay implications should stem from such approach.
Personally I´d welcome something along these lines.

One of the designers mentioned something about Gothic style concerning the maps.That there will be no scaling at the opponents' difficulty.So some areas would be impossible to explore at the beginning.I really like big worlds but u have to be careful with them in order to avoid frustrating situations.Maybe a system similar to BG1 would be nice or a hybrid of sort.And some auto-travelling would be useful too,even if you have to pay for it like booking passage to a coach,ship etc.

It'd be nice to play a game where you know in some cave for example there is a hard to kill troll from the beginning of the game and not some boring easykill grind critters that grow into trolls later based on your level.

Originally Posted by KTs1980
One of the designers mentioned something about Gothic style concerning the maps.

Such shameless namedropping is guaranteed to get the attention of starved addicts such as myself.
That being said hope it's a case of over-promising and not being overambitious because if Bethesda's resources cannot deliver the density of the Gothic worlds (even if they weren't shooting for that) I can't imagine CDP combining both the promised scale and their usual density.

—

I'd just like to interject here and point out that I'm not going to say anything to spoil the mood, Chief. I'll just float here and watch. Don't mind me, just sitting here, floating and watching, that's me.

Originally Posted by Kostaz
Such shameless namedropping is guaranteed to get the attention of starved addicts such as myself.
That being said hope it's a case of over-promising and not being overambitious because if Bethesda's resources cannot deliver the density of the Gothic worlds (even if they weren't shooting for that) I can't imagine CDP combining both the promised scale and their usual density.

you mean we may have a huge world with lots of practically barren areas?i don't think they'll do such thing ,it would be a big mistake.but on the other hand it won't be nice as well if the fill these areas with the same enemies.like having half of the map full of ,let's say,goblins.

Sure this is a big chance but cd project hasn't let down so far. And they are known of taking risks. I hope they still manage to tell a great story and the game still has those hard choises which I loved in previous games. They aren't lacking ambition for sure

In any case I'm not going to judge this beforehand. I have great faith for this studio and I'd rather stay an optimist.

Mateusz: We are not adding the scaling of enemies, just to clear this out.

Konrad: It would be more like in Gothic, if you remember. It was, in my opinion, done very good, that you got areas and monsters which are very powerful and you need to develop your character to defeat them. When you are progressing through in story you will meet stronger monsters and stronger enemies."